Blog: Children as researchers in emergency and disaster situations

By Patricio Cuevas-Parra, Senior Policy Adviser, Child Participation, Advocacy & Justice for Children, World Vision International. 

When was the last time you read a research report written by children? Chances are you have never seen one. I have been fortunate enough to have read some interesting pieces of research conducted by children in my line of work, but I must admit that the norm is that most research on children’s issues is conducted by adults. Children are unlikely to be involved as lead researchers or data-collectors, even when they are the main objective of a research project. I have even met many researchers who prefer to interview parents, social workers, school teachers or NGO officers, rather than interview children directly, in order to gather information about them. 

We can all agree that children experience a number of limitations to their participatory rights, based on several critical factors such as age, gender, social status and unequal distribution of power. These limitations get even more complicated when it comes to conducting research or writing reports. However, the Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that children have the right to freely express their views. There is an obligation to listen to them and to facilitate their participation in all matters affecting them – in their families, schools, institutions, judicial procedures, and even in emergency settings.

The reality is that many children’s lives are not conducive to being respected as active participants in social life, especially those who face emergency and disaster situations. In 2010, in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, I conducted a consultation with children in Port-au-Prince. They complained that adults did not consult them on issues affecting their daily lives, such as education, recreation and protection. Through the consultations, children showed strong caring and coping strategies to overcome their rough living conditions, and said that they had much to offer to the reconstruction efforts. They also said that they wanted to find ways to ensure that their priorities were taken into account and addressed. One of the suggestions that came from the group was to conduct their own consultations and present their findings to the main stakeholders in the emergency response. Unfortunately, I believe this idea did not go any further. 

A few years later, another huge, but very different disaster hit the world, with devastating implications for children. The war in Syria has affected millions of children. Recently, I visited refugee children who had fled Syria to relative safety in Jordan and Lebanon. My mission was to support the World Vision Regional Syria Crisis Response team to facilitate a report, led and written by Syrian refugee children. This group of very motivated, but heavily war-affected, children embarked on a participatory process to research the issues affecting them in their host countries.

People have many questions about child-led reports. How are these vulnerable children able to engage and produce their own report? How do we ensure that it is not tokenistic or manipulated by adults?

The answers are easy, for me. I strongly believe that children are capable, according to their age and maturity, of contributing with their own resources and skills to expanding our shared knowledge, by conducting their own research and even integrating their findings into broader research processes. In my opinion, the exclusion of children from conducting research is due more to discriminatory attitudes than to an inability of children to engage in these kinds of activities. The issue of tokenism and manipulation can be easily addressed by adhering to the minimum standards for meaningful child participation.

While observing the Syrian refugee children who gathered to produce their own report, I was amazed by their abilities to analyse the issues that affect them, prioritise their findings and provide an excellent set of recommendations. I also saw, as the sessions progressed, children increase their self-confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem.

There is no such thing as magic, and this child-led report required the thoughtful implementation of a dynamic process where many factors were taken into account: following strict ethical considerations to ensure the safety, rights, dignity and well-being of the child participants; selection of a well-trained adult facilitator; facilitation methodologies that include interactive and participatory child-friendly research techniques; addressing factors such as gender, religion and ethnicity, which can play a critical role in limiting the participation of children; and finally, challenging traditional adult attitudes that discourage the participation of children based on the belief that they are not ready to make choices on important matters affecting their lives.

This child-led report, which is believed to be the first-ever written by children in a large-scale emergency setting, should encourage us to create more opportunities for children to give their views on what matters to them. In particular, they should advise on what is happening in their society, especially when they are experiencing hardship in the aftermath of a disaster. I am convinced that there is a strong correlation between children who are involved in these kinds of initiatives and increased confidence, positive responses in terms of feeling valued and, in general, being fully participative in life and decision-making. 

The child-led report will be released March 11th, near the third anniversary of the Syria Crisis. For more information please visit: http://www.wvi.org/syria-crisis